Beshalach: apartheid-free Burlington
A statement on the recent Burlington City Council meeting, as a member of the greater-Burlington Jewish community:
In the Torah portion read by the Jewish community this week, the waters blocking Am Yisrael and our comrades from liberation are split. And when they split, the Mekhilta says:
כָּל מַיִם שֶׁבָּעוֹלָם נִבְקָעוּ
...
אַף הַמַּיִם הָעֶלְיוֹנִים וְהַתַּחְתּוֹנִים נִבְקָעוּ
All water in the world was split....even the upper and lower waters split
In our truest moment of liberation as a people, the waters did not split only for us. All the water in the world split, a collective liberation so powerful that the world itself was recreated: the upper and lower waters – separated by haShem in one of the initial acts of creation – split again.
In Siddur Lev Shalem (the prayerbook used by my shul in Burlington) there is a Prayer for the State of Israel that begins
Avinu she-ba-shamayim, stronghold and redeemer of the people Israel: Bless the State of Israel, [that it may be] the beginning of our redemption.
I categorically reject this prayer, with or without the softening statement in square brackets. True liberation cannot come one people at a time, for some at the expense of others. A nation-state founded in Nakba will not begin the process of geulah for us or for anyone, it can only delay it.
I’m a member of two synagogues in Burlington, Vermont. Over the past year, activists in the Burlington area have been gathering signatures to place a nonbinding “Apartheid-Free Burlington” measure on the city ballot. This past Monday, the City Council held a public hearing before determining whether the measure would or would not appear (they rejected it).
At the hearing, the Burlington Rabbis came to the speaker’s table together, as a group, an act arranged beforehand with the City Council. During their time speaking, Rabbi Junik from Chabad stated:
The Jewish people are not settlers and are not colonizing the land of Israel. This land was promised to the Jewish people in the Bible by God, as stated to Abraham: to your descendants I have gifted this land.
Leaving aside the question of whether the Bible should have any authority in civic affairs (it should not), and with all due respect to Rabbi Junik, I have to question this framing.
In Deuteronomy 16:20, we read a famous verse
צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף לְמַ֤עַן תִּֽחְיֶה֙ וְיָרַשְׁתָּ֣ אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לָֽךְ
Justice, justice you shall pursue: so that you may live and take possession of the land that haShem your God is giving you.
People often quote only the first half of this verse: justice, justice you shall pursue.
But the second half is equally important. The gift of land to Avraham’s descendants comes with strings attached: justice, justice you shall pursue so that you may live and possess the land.
The duplication of the word “tzedek” (justice) in this verse has many interpretations:
Pursue justice for yourself and justice for others
Pursue justice that benefits you and justice that does not benefit you
Justice is the thing you should pursue, not anything else
But the duplication also means this: pursuing justice is not just an option. Pursuing justice is not just sufficient to inherit the land, but also necessary:
You shall pursue justice so that you may live and take possession of the land.
And also: if you do not pursue justice, you shall not live and take possession of the land.
This verse is not alone. In the Shema, observant Jews read every day the injunction to keep the mitzvos and love haShem with all our hearts – so that there will be rain in its proper time and the land will provide abundance for the people. But also…
הִשָּׁמְרוּ לָכֶם פֶּן יִפְתֶּה לְבַבְכֶם וְסַרְתֶּם וַעֲבַדְתֶּם אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתֶם לָהֶם׃ וְחָרָה אַף־יְהוָה בָּכֶם וְעָצַר אֶת־הַשָּׁמַיִם וְלֹא־יִהְיֶה מָטָר וְהָאֲדָמָה לֹא תִתֵּן אֶת־יְבוּלָהּ וַאֲבַדְתֶּם מְהֵרָה מֵעַל הָאָרֶץ הַטֹּבָה אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה נֹתֵן לָכֶם
Take care lest your heart be lured away, and you turn astray and worship alien gods and bow down to them. For then the L-rd's wrath will flare up against you, and He will close the heavens so that there will be no rain and the earth will not yield its produce, and you will swiftly perish from the good land which the L-rd gives you.
If you do not keep the mitzvos, the pasuk says, if you do not love haShem with all your heart, you will perish from that land. Once again: the gift of land Rabbi Junik referenced is not unconditional.
I say these verses in the Shema twice every day. And for the last months, I cannot think of anything other than the heartless murder of innocent Palestinians, the system of apartheid in the territories controlled and occupied by Israel, the destruction of fruit trees, the siege of Gaza on all sides. Is this the pursuit of justice? Is this keeping the mitzvos? Is this loving haShem with all our hearts?
I want to be very clear that my analysis of these verses is only in response to Rabbi Junik’s religious statement at the City Council. I do not (of course, gd forbid!) believe that Israelis should be exiled or perish from the land. I do not believe in a god of reward and punishment.
But I do believe in the underlying principle of these verses from our Torah: acting justly and loving with all our hearts is the foundation for life, and a necessary condition for thriving in any land. And if those in power do not act justly, if they do not love with all their hearts, that power must be removed from them.
I do pray for Eretz Yisrael, I pray for Palestine. And when I pray, I pray for a land – from river to sea – where Jews and Palestinians live freely, love freely, and serve justly. I pray for true liberation that will split all waters, a collective geulah that will re-create the world for all of us.
Good shabbos,
ada